Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Call someone "Buckwheat" and it can cost you a million

A lawyer who represents federal employees who have been discriminated against said the payment of $900,000 by a federal agency to an employee whose feelings were hurt by a race-tinged “Little Rascals” reference appears “monstrously excessive” based on past precedent.

He said it could have been designed to prevent a wider, public investigation that would have exposed more serious misconduct at Ginnie Mae, the mortgage agency within the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Ginnie Mae Chief Operating Officer Mary Kinney once called a black employee “Buckwheat,” a minstrel-like character from the 1930s films. A subordinate later authorized the nearly $1 million taxpayer lump sum payment last year to secure a promise from the offended woman that she wouldn’t file a public lawsuit.

Monday, January 30, 2017

NHS doctors have been told not to call pregnant women ‘expectant mothers’ because it might offend transgender people, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

The astonishing warning comes in official guidelines issued by the British Medical Association to its 160,000 members, which says mothers-to-be should be referred to as ‘pregnant people’ instead.

The controversial advice to doctors in hospitals and general practice comes just weeks after it emerged that a Briton who was born a girl but is changing to a man put his operation on hold to have a baby.

Four-months pregnant Hayden Cross, 20, is legally male and has had hormone treatment but not sex-change surgery.

There are no other known cases of a transitioning person becoming pregnant in the UK, but official figures show 775,000 women give birth in Britain every year.

Despite this, the BMA insists doctors should drop the word ‘mother’ when referring to pregnancy to avoid offending transgender people and to ‘celebrate diversity’.

But last night women’s campaigner Laura Perrins criticised the BMA’s advice as ‘anti-science, anti-women and anti-mother’.

She said: ‘As every doctor knows only females can have children. To say otherwise is offensive and dangerous. This will offend women up and down the country, and is an example of the majority of women being insulted for a tiny minority of people.’

On November 1, Facebook blocked the page of a Polish MP, Marek Jakubiak, who promoted the Independence Day march on his Facebook wall, following complaints from those who found the call to defend Europe against non-believers discriminatory.

Access was also disabled to FB pages of All-Polish Youth and other right-wing organizations promoting the march. The takedown followed community protests: complaints made by users who felt the march itself as well as its advertising were discriminatory and hateful. The complainants indicated the discriminatory content of the posts. Facebook later referred directly to the Falanga symbol, visible on the official posters, as a direct reason for the takedowns of hateful, discriminatory content.

Falanga symbol. It's basically a Christian image

However the predictable arguments of the company – that the takedowns followed community standards and mass user complaints – failed to satisfy the right wing activists. They did use the portal to promote their activity and seek community funding from mass followers per voluntary donations so the loss of advertising opportunity shortly before the march was particularly throbbing.

Jakubik and his followers threatened legal action against the company. The MP claimed his freedom of speech was violated and used his public role to emphasize the ‘threat’ Facebook represented to the public discourse in Poland, as he was banned for “being proud to be Polish”. Employees of a Polish Facebook branch were identified as left-wing lobbyists pursuing their political sympathies, influencing the Dublin-based community review teams of the company.

While the calls for the Internal Security Agency to go after Facebook were not yet followed by actions, the clear statement from Polish ministers, including the Minister for Digital Affairs who strongly criticized Facebook for censorship, banning posters promoting a perfectly legal public gathering in Poland, made Facebook lift their ban within the next few days.

Sunday, January 29, 2017

An Ohio college student armed with a cellphone and an overactive imagination alerted campus authorities to what she thought was a hooded Klansman in a campus classroom.

But it turns out that what one female black student at Bowling Green State University thought was a KKK hood was a plastic cover on top of lab equipment, Mediaite reported Tuesday.

“There’s been an ACTIVE KKK group in Bowling Green, OH since 1922,” complained the student in Sunday morning in a tweet directed to university President Mary Ellen Mazey. “[S]oo, how does this promote diversity &a inclusion??”

The tweet included a brief cellphone video that zoomed into a room in a campus building where there appeared to be a conical-shaped white sheet.

In a reply Monday morning, Ms. Mazey answered the student in a tweet containing photographs to assuage the student’s fears.“Thanks for sharing @autumpatrice,” she wrote. “We looked into this. We discovered it’s a cover on a piece of lab equipment.”

Various people were mocked but mocking a black was what generated criticism

More than 30 university medical students were suspended for blacking up and wearing a large fake penis to impersonate their black American lecturer, it was revealed today.

South Wales Police were called in to investigate the charity production for racial hatred and 32 students were suspended from their medical course.

An independent report commissioned by the university has hit out at the play performed last year and also revealed complaints of racism, sexism and lack of diversity in the School of Medicine.

Dr Allen, 46, said he was left 'worried' at his portrayal in the play - and said the university could have supported him better.

The report said: 'There were three performances of the revue in February 2016 in which a medical school staff member was portrayed as a stereotypical, hyper-sexualised black man, wearing an oversized dildo.

'Other lecturers too were made fun of. There were racist, sexist and homophobic jokes and stereotype references.

'The script of the show was not seen or approved by anyone in authority at the university, nor by the Student Union.'

Police were called in to investigate but decided that no further action would be taken. Two students involved in the blacking up admitted a lack of sensitivity.

The report revealed two students who complained about the play had decided to leave and transfer to other medical schools.

Some students described social life at Cardiff's School of Medicine as 'segregated' and said black students were separate from other non-white groups.

It said local doctors and the NHS play a role in perpetuating a 'rugby culture' among students in the medical school.

Recommendations include giving all university staff regular training in diversity including race, gender and sexual orientation and actively discouraging offensive stereotyping of any person or group.

Friday, January 27, 2017

Rep. Rohrabacher: ‘Isn’t It Wonderful To Have a President Who Can Use The Words Radical Islamic Terrorist?’

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) said Tuesday he believed the Trump administration will stand up to the regime in Iran and praised the new president for his willingness to use terms shunned by his predecessor when describing the threat posed by terrorists.

“Isn’t it wonderful to have a president that can use the words ‘radical Islamic terrorist?’” Rohrabacher said at a Capitol Hill briefing by the Organization of Iranian American Communities. “Isn’t that a wonderful thing? “

“That means we have sent a message to those radical Islamic terrorists that run Iran, that we have their number. We know what they are doing and we are not afraid to stand up to their type of tyranny.”

(In his inaugural address, Trump pledged to “unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the Earth.”)

The Hill published my piece on Lindsay Lohan’s possible conversion to Islam yesterday; you can read it in its entirety on the Jihad Watch site, but you can’t read it at The Hill. It was a minor piece about a minor celebrity, but it caused the foes of freedom major agitation. All day today, Leftists and Islamic supremacists have been tweeting at The Hill, outraged that they published the “racist” “hatemonger” Robert Spencer.

What was “racist” or “hateful” about the actual article they did not and could not say, because there wasn’t really anything racist or hateful about it. But The Hill has succumbed to the neo-fascist impulse, emulating the Nazi Brownshirts who shouted down and physically menaced anti-Nazi professors in Germany in the early 1930s, and has pulled the article. Leftists and Islamic supremacists cannot engage their foes intellectually any more than the Nazis could, and so they do what the Nazis did: demonize and stigmatize them until people are too intimidated and ashamed to hold their positions. Any opinion that violates Sharia blasphemy laws must be silenced. And there is no end of cowards in the West who willingly become mute as fish when thus challenged.

I will happily debate, in any public forum, with any serious Leftist or Muslim spokesman, any of the points I made in that article or in any of my other writings. But they will not engage on that level. They know they can only win by shouting their opponents down and forcibly shutting them up. And they have prevailed upon The Hill tonight. It was less bloody than the carnage at the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris in January 2015, but the motion was otherwise the same: foes of jihad terror and Islamic supremacism were forcibly silenced, which is the only way we can be silenced.

Thursday, January 26, 2017

Candidates aspiring to take over as chairman of the Democratic National Committee met Monday night to discuss what went wrong in 2016 and how to get the party back on track.

Early into the event the candidates gravitated toward a particular scapegoat for the party’s poor showing in November: Political consultancies owned by white people.

“We have to stop, particularly with the consultants,” said the chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party, Jaime Harrison. “You cannot come to the DNC and get a contract and the only minority face you have is the person answering the phone.”

Minority consultants “need to get the same resources that the white consultants have gotten,” said a Fox News analyst and candidate for the chairmanship, Jehmu Greene. "The DNC did a piss poor, pathetic job" attracting minorities, she said.

Democrats must provide “training” that focuses in part on teaching Americans “how to be sensitive and how to shut their mouths if they are white,” urged the executive director of Idaho’s Democratic Party, Sally Boynton Brown, who is white.

The event’s moderator, MSNBC’s Joy Ann Reid, asked the candidates how the party should handle the Black Lives Now movement. The candidates uniformly emphasized that the party must embrace the activists unreservedly.

“It makes me sad that we’re even having that conversation and that tells me that white leaders in our party have failed,” Brown said. “I’m a white woman, I don’t get it. … My job is to listen and be a voice and shut other white people down when they want to interrupt.”

"Our society was not imagined by the drafters of our constitution as one that jails pastors for their sermons"

This week's outcry and debate over homophobic comments made by Ghanaian preacher Dag Heward-Mills in a Johannesburg church blows the dust off a free-speech debate that is likely to dominate headlines in coming months.

The brouhaha coincided with a meeting between religious leaders and the justice department, which is pushing its draft Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech bill.

Both events tease out the tensions which exist in a society governed by a constitution and its protected rights, but in which religious conservatism is also a significant factor.

The hate speech bill is the minefield where all these factors are heading for an explosion.

Religious leaders at the meeting gave a taste of what is to come. Instead of distancing themselves from Heward-Mills's homophobic comments, they demanded the government roll back its efforts to curb hate speech.

How will the state respond to this?

Religious freedom and freedom of speech are entrenched in the constitution. Free speech only loses its protection in the narrowest of scenarios which relate mainly to inciting "imminent" violence, harm or war.

The hate speech bill goes much further. A person who is threatening or abusive, for example, and who merely intends to bring another person or group into ridicule or contempt, will be guilty of hate speech.

If promulgated in its current form, Heward-Mills could be imprisoned for his remarks on Sunday. Currently they would be protected free speech.

Repulsive as his comments might be to many, our society was not imagined by the drafters of our constitution as one that jails pastors for their sermons. Or journalists for their reporting. Or artists for their art.

We would rather live with discomfort and distaste for the views of others, and define our tolerance by the volume of our outrage, than under the umbrella of the hate speech bill as it stands now.

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Leftist tolerance again

So much for liberal tolerance. This Liberal old lady who should have more manners and know better threatened to throw up in this man’s lap for being a Trump supporter.

According to Scott Koteskey, the pro-Trump passenger, the woman started the fight when she asked him if he was in the area to support or protest Trump. When he said he was there to support democracy she began to berate him and demand that he change seats.

Flight attendants were made aware of the situation and talked to the woman. The pilot of the aircraft decided that she be removed from the flight. At first she refused to but eventually the woman and her husband left the plane. Here’s his side of the story.

Just had the craziest experience ever on an airplane:

I’m boarding my flight from Baltimore to Seattle and approach my seat. I had an upgraded seat that I paid a little extra for because of the long 6 hour flight. As I approach my row I smile and motion to the husband and wife sitting in the aisle and middle seat that my seat was next to the window. I put my backpack in the overhead and the wife with a very stern voice says to me:

“Did you come here to cheer or to protest?”

“I came here to celebrate democracy ma’am”

… I knew this was going to be a long flight at this point. She then proceeded with: (somewhat paraphrased as my memory allows)

Her: “You put a crazed man in charge of the nuclear codes! You should be ashamed!”

Me: ‘Well we’re all entitled to our opinions here ma’am.”

Her: “And I’m entitled to get drunk and puke in your lap! I’m going to throw up right in your lap! You make me sick! Don’t talk to me! Don’t look at me! Don’t you dare even put your arm on that rest. You disgust me! You should be ashamed of yourself! You put a maniac’s finger on the button” (assuming she’s means nukes). You are a bigot. You should get off this plane!”

Me: “ma’am, by definition, bigotry is disparaging someone prior to knowing them simply by their beliefs and opinions. Thank you for being the very thing you preach against.”

She the proceeded with other various rantings such as my lack of critical thinking and other insults. Finally a flight attendant came over as you will see in the video followed by a supervisor informing that she would have to deboard the plane per captains orders.

After much fuss, airport police came and removed her from the plane.

As the lady was removed I saw that I was surrounded by blacks, Latinos, Asians, and whites, all who had chimed in asking her to be removed and who had defended me. I was touched and moved knowing later that not all these people were Trump supporters.

The black man who took the seat next to me was a registered Democrat and he and I had a very good discussion about the beauty of free speech and coming together when people insult and commit acts of violence just for having differing views.

A Saturday Night Live writer who made a bad-taste joke about Barron Trump on Twitter has apologized for her 'inexcusable' actions after she was suspended from the show.

On Inauguration Day Katie Rich tweeted that the ten-year-old boy would become 'this country's first homeschool shooter,' but deleted it three hours later.

She then came in for an avalanche of criticism from Twitter users, who branded her 'scum', called for her account to be blocked, and urged NBC to fire her.

Rich wasn't fired, but she was suspended indefinitely from working on the show after the furor failed to cool down over the weekend, an insider told Deadline Monday.

Rich was not credited on Saturday's edition of the show, and it's not known when she will return.

The response to her apology was mixed, to say the least.

Many doubted the sincerity of her apology, with users John McLemore suggesting that Rich's 'conscience kicked in when the backlash started,' and Domenico Cusumano saying 'This came from somewhere that was contrived by the masses.'

And a user named 'Ashley' said: 'These people so quick to accept your insincere apology are the same ones that hold a grudge towards Trump for saying far less.'

Others were just unable to overcome their disgust at her remark.

A user called Joey complained: 'Attacking a 10 year old? Disgusting,' while Eric Mulholland wrote: 'Insensitive probably isn't the word for it.

Even some of those who were nominally on Rich's side didn't agree with her bad-taste gag.

'Please don't do or say these things in the future, very hateful, it's the exact opposite what we need today,' said Howard Vince. 'Protest w class.'

Meanwhile, Klau said: 'I'm not a Trump supporter, quite the opposite, but that was a horrible thing you did. Barron is a kid! Shame on you!'

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Student Group Sues After Members Arrested for Handing Out Copies of Constitution

Student members of the Young Americans for Liberty chapter at Kellogg Community College are suing their school after they were arrested for passing out copies of the U.S. Constitution.

The group says that on Sept. 20, 2016, KCC students Michelle Gregoire, Brandon Withers, and three others were in an open area in front of KCC’s Binda Performing Arts Center handing out pocket Constitutions and talking with students about YAL.

The students allege in their federal lawsuit that campus administrators and security approached them and told them they were violating the school’s Solicitation Policy because they were passing out the Constitution copies without prior approval. They were also informed they could not engage in such activity at that particular location.

The students allege that an administrator told them that “engaging [students] in conversation on their way to educational places” violated the Solicitation Policy because it was an “obstruction to their education” to ask them questions such as “Do you like freedom and liberty?”

The students say in their lawsuit that no one was blocked from attending class or berated for not responding. They did not force anyone to take a Constitution or participate in a conversation.

After nearly two hours of talking with students on Sept. 20, an administrator approached the YAL members, according to the lawsuit. This administrator said the students needed a permit, but after Gregoire explained how the last time she tried the official route she had no luck, the administrator asked how much longer she would be at the location. She said another one or two hours, and the administrator said that would be OK.

But five minutes later, another administrator, Drew Hutchinson, told the students to stop what they were doing and insisted they were keeping students from their education. Hutchinson allegedly told the YAL members that asking passing students if they liked freedom and liberty was a “provocative” question.

When Gregoire and Withers refused to move, saying they were having success at that location, Hutchinson left and returned with KCC’s chief of public safety, Harold West.

West told them to leave the area and threatened to arrest Withers for trespassing. He left, but Gregoire, Edikaukas, and another supporter, Nathan Berning from the Leadership Institute, remained.

West arrested them for trespassing, and told Gregoire—a student at KCC—that she could not return to campus without his permission.

The three were booked in the Calhoun County Jail on trespassing charges, and spent more than seven hours locked up before posting bond. Ten days after their arrest, the county prosecutor dismissed the charges against them.

Withers says in the lawsuit that he has witnessed other students violating KCC’s free speech and solicitation policies without incident.

He said that a year prior to his encounter, he saw members of an LGBT student organization distributing literature in the Student Center while freely walking around and not confined to sitting quietly at a table.

Withers also alleges he has seen students asking for petition signatures around other areas of campus without prior approval to do so.

While KCC’s Solicitation Policy clearly states that activities such as the one YAL engaged in must receive prior approval from the school, the group alleges the policy is unconstitutional in part because it gives school administrators discretion over restricting student speech.

With almost 1.8 billion users, Facebook is constantly making decisions about what it allows on its social network and what gets nixed as hate speech.

On Wednesday, almost 80 advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, sent a letter to Facebook that takes issue with how the company makes those decisions. The letter (PDF) accuses Facebook of a lack of transparency and "racially biased censorship."

The groups allege that Facebook disproportionately censors posts from people of color, especially posts with political speech and critiques of law enforcement.

"Even as activists have been censored for political speech and for posting images critical of government actors -- including police officers -- Facebook's third-party complaint process has failed to prevent the spread of violent threats and harassment by white supremacist hate groups on your platform," the letter reads.

The "third-party complaint process" refers to Facebook's practice of hiring outside groups to sort through posts flagged as potential hate speech. In November, an NPR report said the contractors sometimes have 10 seconds to decide the fate of a piece of content.

A Facebook spokeswoman said the company received the letter and is reviewing it.

Monday, January 23, 2017

Racist media figure comments on audience at Trump's inauguration

An ABC anchor has sparked outrage after calling Trump's inauguration audience 'the ice cream of America'. Byron Pitts, who is the co-anchor of Nightline, made the comment on Friday to ABC's George Stephanopoulos.

He said: 'You said earlier how Donald Trump is an optics guy. He said, talking about Michael Pence, "He looked the part." 'Think about this crowd and think about the divided America. We talked about the noise of the racial divide, this is the whisper of the racial divide in America.

'Now think back to when President Obama took office for the first time, how diverse the crowd was. You saw the rainbow of America.

'Today this looks like the ice cream of America. Right? It is an overwhelmingly white audience.'

He continued: 'Donald Trump clearly is the president of blue-collar America. He talked about the forgotten people.

'Well, there are a lot of folk who will see today and feel forgotten, because they don't see themselves in the audience.'

Twitter users criticized Pitts for his remark, which came during ABC's coverage of the inaugural parade.

One user tweeted: '@byronpitts - You sir are a racist. When BO was elected no one said "the his support came from blacks even though 99% supported him.'

Another person said: '@byronpitts stop being such a racist, Trump hater. Be an AMERICAN for 1 day at least for crying out loud. Trump loves America.'

'@byronpitts The "ice cream of America"? You racist f***... Way to contribute to the divide,' a Twitter user said.

UK: Brewery's plans to change historic 'Black Boy' pub name because it 'wasn't PC' is scrapped after a huge public backlash

A pub firm has dropped plans to re-name The Black Boy after locals protested the change.

Barons Pub Company took over the centuries-old inn at Shinfield, near Reading, Berkshire, this week and wanted to change the name to the more politically correct Shinfield Arms.

While the company said there had been 'negative' comments over the Black Boy name, more than 250 people on social media hit out at the name change.

The firm said on Saturday that it is backing down and the pub will remain The Black Boy.

Barons Pub Company said it had pitched the name change because continuing to call it The Black Boy was 'causing concern' in this day and age.

'We are always respectful of the history of pubs and understand that changing the name of a pub is not a decision to be taken lightly,' the company announced on January 16th when previous landlords Claire Hawkins and Mike Clegg sold their lease after eight years behind the bar.

The firm added: 'However, in our short association with the pub, we have been surprised how many negative reactions we have had to the name The Black Boy.

'We are proposing to change the name to The Shinfield Arms and would like to hear the views of anyone who lives in the area or anyone who has an opinion on this subject.

'All that we ask is that this is reasonable and well considered feedback.'

They got more than 250 comments from customers urging the pub to keep the historical name.

Yesterday they said the name would remain the same.

'What a fantastic response from everyone!' Barons Pub Company wrote. 'Thanks so much for all your comments, your passion and enthusiasm - you've made the decision really easy.'

The pub will remain closed for refurbishment until March 8, when it will reopen in the evening.

Barons said: 'The refurbishment will aim to enhance the character of the lovely old building, adding a touch of modernisation.

The Black Boy, which is a commonly used name for pubs and inns in the UK, refers to a description of King Charles II, child chimney sweeps or coal miners

King Charles II, who was in power between 1660 and 1685, was known for his dark complexion.

A Black Boy Inn in Caernarfon, north west Wales, is believed to date back to as early as 1522.

It's landlord once said that complaints about the name were 'political correctness gone wrong'.

Sunday, January 22, 2017

ESPN in race row after commentator compares Venus Williams to a GORILLA at Australian Open tennis match

ESPN has been caught in a race row after a commentator compared Venus Williams to a gorilla. Doug Adler sparked a furious backlash on social media with his comments during the second round of the Australian Open.

Former pro Adler made the controversial comparison as five-time Wimbledon champion beat Stefanie Voegele in the second round. Narrating the action, he said: "She misses a first serve and Venus is all over her. You will see Venus move in and puts the gorilla effect on. Charging".

Furious Twitter users immediately called for Adler's dismissal.

Other users, however, claimed the commentator had been misquoted and had in fact meant “guerrilla”.

In 2014 the president the Russian Tennis Federation Shamil Tarpishchev referred to Serena and Venus Williams as the "Williams brothers" on Russian state television and was fined US$25,000.

Australia: State government encouraging workers not to use ‘wife’, ‘husband’

This is from last year but I think it remains notable

THE Victorian Government has come under fire for encouraging workers to not use the words “wife” or “husband” to avoid offending LGBTI colleagues.

The recommendation was released in the Inclusive Language Guide earlier this year which says workers should avoid “heteronormative’’ terms and instead use works like ‘’partner” to refer to loved ones.

Minister for Equality Martin Foley has defended the document saying there was no ban, the guide suggests “you should try and avoid the use of husband and wife.’’

The recommendations have been labelled as over the top by Opposition spokesman Tim Smith.

“People should be respectful to everyone regardless of gender, religion, ethnicity, sexuality and appearance, but once again Daniel Andrews is dividing people with his over the top ideological nonsense,” Mr Smith said.

“Victorians are being swamped by a violent crime wave and skyrocketing electricity bills but Daniel Andrews is focused on people using heteronormative terms such as ‘husband’ and ‘wife’.

“This isn’t just creating unnecessary division it’s also a frightening waste of taxpayers’ money when respect and common sense is what’s needed.”

Mr Foley said language guidelines were standard practice.

“This is not a new document — and follows a long standing practice of government departments having guides on language,’’ he said.

Friday, January 20, 2017

A local Finns Party politician in Oulu was convicted of incitement against an ethnic group and breaching religious peace on Monday.

Sebastian Tynkkynen is the former chair of the populist Finns Party youth wing and a deputy member of the Oulu City Council.

Oulu District Court convicted him of hate speech based on three anti-Islamic Facebook posts last summer. He was ordered to delete the texts and pay a fine of 50-day fine, which amounts 300 euros based on his income. The Finns Party youth organisation says it is appalled by the ruling.

Grammy-nominated gospel singer Kim Burrell has had a scheduled appearance on Ellen cancelled, after a video showing her delivering a homophobic sermon at her local church went viral.

The gospel singer was due to perform her single I See A Victory – a song off the soundtrack to the new Golden Globe-nominated film Hidden Figures, recorded with Pharrell Williams – on the show today.

But, following days of public outrage at the singer's comments, including a Change.org petition condemning the upcoming performance, host Ellen DeGeneres vetoed the gig with a simple tweet to her 64 million followers.

"For those asking, Kim Burrell will not be appearing on my show," she wrote.

Burrell, 44 - a respected figure in the gospel music world, who had previously worked with the likes of Harry Connick Jr and Frank Ocean, and was once listed as an inspiration by Beyonce - was filmed delivering an angry sermon at Houston's Liberty Fellowship Church in a clip uploaded to Facebook last week, where she described homosexuality as a sin.

"I came to tell you about sin. That perverted homosexual spirit, and the spirit of delusion and confusion. It has deceived many men and women, and it's caused us pain on the body of Christ," she feverishly told her congregation.

"You as a man, you open your mouth and take a man's penis in your face - you are perverted... You are a woman and will shake your face in another woman's breast, you are perverted," she screamed from her pulpit.

After the clip went viral, Burrell stopped short of apologising for the comments in a Facebook video last Friday.

Thursday, January 19, 2017

UNM tries to levy ‘free speech fine,’ GOP group says

The University of New Mexico has told the school’s College Republicans organization that it must pay a $3,400 security charge for a scheduled Jan. 27 campus appearance by Milo Yiannopoulos, a controversial speaker, provocateur and writer for right-wing Breitbart News.

Marina Herrera, president of UNM College Republicans, described the charge as a “free speech fine” and challenged the university’s action. She said the administration is simply attempting to censor a controversial speaker – a claim denied by a UNM spokeswoman.

Herrera said the group was informed about the cost of the event Friday evening despite planning the event for months. She said the organization doesn’t have access to that kind of money.

“To wait this long to inform us is either poor management or a deliberate attempt to silence speech at a public university,” Herrera told the

Journal in a statement. “Neither possibility is acceptable and we continue to hope that we can come to a workable solution.”

UNM spokeswoman Dianne Anderson said the group was given an estimated cost Jan. 10.

Anderson said the university is treating the Yiannopoulos event the same way it treats all campus events sponsored by student groups. She referred to a university policy that says a group hosting the event is “responsible for security costs based on the number of police and/or security officers required and the length of event, program or rental.”

On Tuesday night, Anderson couldn’t immediately provide security charges for other speaking events on campus. She did say “additional security” could be needed at the Yiannopoulos event, based on planned protests at UNM and previous protests at other campuses.

Just before Christmas, the University of Oregon mounted an exceptionally unhinged assault on free speech. If you missed it, don’t feel bad. It got lost amidst the holiday cacophony and, in any event, it was only the latest in long a series of such eye-popping assaults on free expression over the past few years.

What happened? Tenured law professor Nancy Shurtz, a white woman, hosted an off-campus Halloween party at which she dressed up as a black man.

In response to complaints, the University of Oregon launched an investigation, ultimately issuing a report suspending the professor on the grounds that her costume constituted “discriminatory harassment.” That the professor actually intended (however clumsily) to protest racism was irrelevant.

In 1929, Chief Justice William Howard Taft convinced Congress to finance construction of “a building of dignity and importance” for the Supreme Court. He could not have imagined what the court will ponder during oral arguments this Wednesday. The case concerns the name of an Asian-American rock band: The Slants. And surely Taft never read a friend-of-the-court brief as amusing as one filed in this case. It is titled “Brief of the Cato Institute and a Basket of Deplorable People and Organizations.”

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is empowered, by the so-called “disparagement clause” of a 1946 law, to protect American sensitivities by denying trademark protection to “immoral, deceptive or scandalous” trademarks. These have included those that a substantial portion of a particular group perceive as disparaging that group — an ethnic, religious, national or other cohort. The PTO has canceled the trademark registrations of entities named Mormon Whiskey, Abort the Republicans, Democrats Shouldn’t Breed, Marriage Is For Fags, and many more.

The Cato/Deplorables brief urges compassionate libertarianism: “This Court should make the jobs of the employees at the … [PTO] much easier and put an end to the disparagement clause.” Government officials cannot be trusted to “neutrally” identify speech that disparages. Besides, “disparaging speech has been central to political debate, cultural discourse, and personal identity” throughout American history. The brief notes that a donkey became the Democratic Party’s symbol because someone called Andrew Jackson a “jackass” and he, whose default mode was defiance, put the creature on campaign posters. Entire American professions — e.g., newspaper columnists — exist in part to disparage.

Many rock bands pick names obviously intended to disparage or shock: Dead Kennedys, Dying Fetus, Sex Pistols, etc. Does the title of the best-selling book “Hillbilly Elegy” disparage a group? The Cato/Deplorables brief says: “One of this brief’s authors is a cracker (as distinct from a hillbilly) who grew up near Atlanta, but he wrote this sentence, so we can get away with saying that.” Then comes a footnote: “But he only moved to Atlanta when he was 10 and doesn’t have a Southern accent — and modern Atlanta isn’t really part of the South — so maybe we can’t.” Furthermore, the lead counsel on the brief “is a Russian-Jewish emigre who’s now a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen. Can he make borscht-belt jokes about Canuck frostbacks even though the first time he went to shul was while clerking in Jackson, Mississippi?”

When the government registers a trademark, it is not endorsing or subsidizing a product. It should not be allowed to use its power to deny registration in order to discourage or punish the adoption of controversial expressions. By registering trademarks, government confers a benefit — a legal right — on those who hold them. Trademarks are speech. The disparagement clause empowers the PTO to deny a benefit because of the viewpoint of the speech. This is unconstitutional.

Trademarks are not commercial speech — essentially, advertising — which is accorded less robust protection than that given to other speech. Eugene Volokh, a UCLA law professor and one of The Slants' lawyers, correctly says the band’s name is expressive speech. The Asian-Americans of The Slants agree. They say they adopted this name “to take on these stereotypes that people have about us, like the slanted eyes, and own them.”

The PTO applies the disparagement clause by assessing “what message the referenced group takes from the applicant’s [trade]mark in the context of the applicant’s use” and denies registration “only if the message received is a negative one.” The PTO, which has denied trademark protection for The Slants, has given it to a band named N.W.A. which stands for [a version of the N-word] Wit Attitudes.

The PTO’s decisions are unpredictable because they depend on the agency speculating about what might be the feelings of others in hypothetical circumstances. This vague and arbitrarily enforced law, if such it can be called, chills speech by encouraging blandness.

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Anti-Defamation League Stunned To Discover Anti-Semitism On An Arabic Website

Are they finally waking up to the reality that it's not Christians who are the enemies of Jews?

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today voiced disappointment over the failure by editors at HuffPost Arabi to remove a blatantly anti-Semitic blog after it was first brought to their attention several weeks ago. The Arabic-language blog promotes a conspiracy theory blaming Jews for the death of the Prophet Mohammed.

“It is troubling that an anti-Semitic screed cleared The Huffington Post’s editorial review process and that our concerns so far have been ignored,” said Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL CEO. “We call on The Huffington Post to immediately remove this offensive entry and to ensure that the proper safeguards are in place so that the Arabic site is free of anti-Semitism and incitement against Jews.”

The post is titled “Was the Prophet Poisoned With Arsenic” (or words to that effect). It examines the story of the perfidous Jewess (sorry, you don’t get much of a chance to use this word so I can’t pass it up) Zeynab bint Al-Harith (“bint” is also one of those late 19th century British words that can get you fired today if you use it) who poisoned Mohammed with arsenic. The same enlightened writer also seems to characterize the slaughter of Jewish prisoners of the Banu Qurayza tribe as anti-Islamic propaganda.

Unfortunately for Mr. Greenblatt, it would be rather impossible to withdraw that article without discounting Islam altogether. Muslims claim that Jews made many attempts on Mohammed’s life and the one by this woman succeeded. The story comes from hadith, essentially the Islamic equivalent of Gospels only without the “good news” part, which is classified “shahih,” or authentic.

SUSAN Olsen, who played Cindy Brady in five seasons of The Brady Bunch, has been fired from a Los Angeles radio station for allegedly posting homophobic remarks against a listener who complained about “idiotic lies” she was spreading on her program.

On December 8, LA-based actor Leon Accord-Whiting posted on Facebook that it was “widely irresponsible for LA Talk Radio to allow a Trump fanatic to co-host one of their programs, where she can spew her idiotic lies unchecked ... I think LA Talk Radio needs to give ‘Cindy Brady’ her walking papers. I will not listen to or appear on any shows there from this point forward until she’s gone. This isn’t just disagreeing on, say, tax plans or foreign policy. Susan Olsen spreads outrageous misinformation & it is dangerous and unprofessional.”

Olsen allegedly sent Accord-Whiting a direct message after his post, calling him “the biggest faggot ass in the world” and a “true piece of sh*t” among a string of other pejoratives. “I hope you meet your karma slowly and painfully,” she wrote. In a separate public post she referred to him as a “little piece of human waste” and complained that “He blocked himself from me before I could even get one hit in” before advising her supporters to “please send him my love.”

Accord-Whiting posted her private response to his Facebook wall. He also claimed to be hacked and subjected to online harassment from Olsen’s supporters.

The radio station responded by firing Olsen from the show Two Chicks Talkin’ Politics.

In an online post the station stated: “LA Talk Radio takes pride in its close and collaborative relationship with the LGBT community, and will continue to provide a home for those who have hopeful and positive messages of togetherness and tolerance to share with our listeners.

Monday, January 16, 2017

Black TV host is a clown in more ways than one

But he is black so will get away with it

COMEDIAN Steve Harvey is under fire for mocking Asian men. During a segment on his eponymous talk show on Monday, the 59-year-old comedian made fun of several self-help books, including one titled How to Date a White Woman: A Practical Guide for Asian Men.

“Excuse me, do you like Asian men?” he asked the audience. “No thank you.”

He then suggested a new book title, “How to Date a Black Woman: A Practical Guide [for] Asian Men.”

“That’s one page too!” He says. “‘You like Asian men?’ I don’t even like Chinese food. It don’t stay with you no time … I don’t eat what I can’t pronounce.”

Though Harvey spent most of his segment cackling at his own jokes, people on social media weren’t laughing.

“Steve Harvey’s joke about Asian men being unattractive was trash,” wrote one Twitter user.

'Shut it down': Customers slam Coles ad for referring to sausage sandwiches as an 'Aussie taco'

A bit of imaginative copywriting fell foul of how Australians see themselves. They certainly don't see themselves as in any way tributary to Mexicans

Australians may be divided on many important issues, but they all seem to agree on one thing - a sausage sandwich should never be called the 'Aussie taco'.

So when supermarket giant Coles decided to feature cricketer Merv Hughes in an advert holding a sausage in bread and call it an 'Aussie taco', social media users lost their minds.

'Whoah whoah whoah... When did Australia agree on calling a snag in bread an 'Aussie Taco? Shut it down,' Leon Sjogren posted, the first of many tweets reprimanding the Coles advertisement.

'I don't know about you guys, but I've never heard a sausage on bread referred to as a "great Aussie taco",' one user posted.

Another added: 'To say I'm going to Bunnings for an Aussie Taco just doesn't sound right does it.'

Others pointed out that while a sausage paired with a slice of bread can go by many names, the 'Aussie taco' title just was not one of them.

'It's called a sausage sandwich. Not an Aussie Taco. Other people call it a snag sanga. Coles get it right please,' one person wrote.

Sausages are the meaty pillars on which society stands in Australia, a country where even 'democracy sausage' was voted Australian National Dictionary Centre's word of the year.

The staple's popularity at polling booths grew to such a frenzy during Australia's most recent election that several websites were set up to map where voters could find the best place to cast their ballot and eat a snag.

Sunday, January 15, 2017

Incorrect boot

A California shoe company has apologised and recalled a boot after a customer realised the sole's tread left behind swastika imprints.

The boot, made by Conal International Trading Inc, went viral after a Reddit user posted a photo of it leaving behind a swastika print. "There was an angle I didn't get to see when ordering my new work boots," the post read.

Conal has since pulled the boot and issued an apology, saying the design was "not intentional" and "a mistake" by manufacturers in China.

"We were informed recently the company imported boots that have an offensive symbol designed on them," the company said.

"There was never any intention to include any offensive designs on the products we import."

Conal said it did "not promote hate or discrimination of any kind" and was investigating what had gone wrong.

The Reddit post, which has been viewed more than 3 million times, sparked a flurry of jokes on social media.

On Amazon, where the boots were sold before being pulled by the company, users left reviews describing the boots as "good for marching into Poland, but not so much for anything else", and rating them a "nein out of ten".

Other Reddit users pointed out the boot style shared its name — Polar Fox — with that of the codename for a German and Finnish military operation in World War II.

It was highly politically correct -- failing even to mention Australia day and being super-multicultural -- but you can't please some people.

Australia Day commemorates the landing of the first white settlers in Australia. It is a popular day for getting together with friends and relatives over a BBQ. The sheep farmers want us to put lamb chops on the BBQ

The annual television advert encouraging people to eat lamb on Australia Day is often controversial, and it seems this year is no different, with members of the Indigenous community describing it as "highly offensive" and "disgusting".

While Meat and Livestock Australia says the response has been mostly positive, some in the Indigenous community say it is highly offensive.

The campaign, which depicts a European invasion, makes no mention of Australia Day. It begins with a group of Indigenous Australians having a barbecue on a beach as one by one, ships of explorers reach the shore.

The cast of the ad is diverse, with guest appearances from Cathy Freeman, Wendell Sailor, Poh Ling Yeow and former chair of the National Australia Day Council Adam Gilchrist.

While some have taken umbrage at the complete omission of references to Australia Day, some within the Indigenous community have criticised the ad.

"[Using] the continual pain, the real pain felt on this date for their own purposes, for a marketing stunt ... that's the most offensive part of it," said journalist and Darumbal woman Amy Mcquire.

"There's Aboriginal people dying in custody, having their children taken away, suiciding ... and that oppression stems from that original invasion. "So to use that as a marketing ploy to sell lamb ... is even more disgusting I think."

But Andrew Howie, group marketing manager of Meat and Livestock Australia, says the organisation held consultations with several Indigenous groups throughout the creative process.

Mr Howie says an effort was made to respect "cultural sensitivities".

"The work that we create is never designed to be offensive, it's not designed to cause offense to people," Mr Howie said.

"This year's campaign is a celebration of Australia's history. This year, and with the essence of the brand being very much around unity, we realised that this time of year there are cultural sensitivities.

"If we were going to be inclusive … we needed to understand some of those cultural sensitivities."

Tim Burrowes from the media and marketing website Mumbrella says the ad is risky, but most good marketing is.

"I think if one thinks about the motives involved behind creating this ad, they come from a place which is trying — through sense of humour — to move on a conversation and get a message out there."

Meryl Streep has been accused of being 'anti-Israel' after she said Natalie Portman was from Jerusalem at the Golden Globes.

Streep, who was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award on Sunday, had launched a blistering attack on Donald Trump in front of a room of stunned Hollywood stars.

But while the president-elect may have been the target, the three-time Oscar winner managed to insult football, MMA and now, according to some, the state of Israel, which has battled with the State of Palestine for decades over ownership of Jerusalem.

Attacking Trump's divisive rhetoric towards immigrants, Streep said that 'Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners.'

'The beautiful Ruth Negga was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and was raised in Ireland... Ryan Gosling, like all the nicest people is Canadian. And Dev Patel was born in Kenya, raised in London, is here playing an Indian, raised in Tasmania.

'Sarah Paulson was born in Florida... Amy Adams was born in Vicenzia, Italy, and Natalie Portman was born in Jerusalem. Where are their birth certificates?

Some have pounced on the fact that Streep chose to only mention that Portman was from the world famous city of Jerusalem, and not the country of Israel.

Anti-Israel and anti-Zionists do not recognize Israel's ownership of East Jerusalem which occurred after the 1967 Six-Day War, and was sanctified again in the 1980 Jerusalem Law proclamation, which declared a 'complete and united' Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Thursday, January 12, 2017

Even though Obama himself said that Trayvon Martin could have been his child. And she thinks ill of Muslims! How Awful!

A high school teacher from West Virginia has been suspended with pay over a litany of racially charged and anti-Muslim tweets, including some posts targeting President Barack Obama.

Mary Durstein, a social studies teacher at Huntington High School, was asked to leave the campus on Monday after district officials in Cabell County were made aware of her vitriolic social media posts and comments dating back to at least 2015.

Posting under the user name 'pigpen63,' Durstein recently weighed in on a widely covered incident out of Chicago in which four black youths allegedly tortured a special-needs teenager and broadcast the attack on Facebook Live.

Someone posted a photo of the four suspects with the caption: 'Imagine if these were 4 white people torturing a special need black kid!'

Durstein, who is white, commented on the post saying the alleged assailants 'could have been Obama’s children,' seemingly referencing the president's statement from 2013, in which he famously said that unarmed black teen Trayvon Martin, who was shot dead in Florida by George Zimmerman, 'could have been my son.'

In response to another meme calling President Obama a 'douchebag Muslim,' Durstein wrote, 'Exactly!' reported the Herald-Dispatch.

Durstein frequently targeted Muslims in her outbursts.

In a tweet dated July 18, 2015, Durstein wrote: 'Who cares if we offend Muslims at least they keep their heads on tact [sic]. They're the enemy!'

L.L. Bean doesn’t sell flak jackets, but the Maine-based purveyor of just about every other kind of outdoor gear might need a few after finding itself caught in the middle of a political skirmish over its namesake heiress and her support of President-elect Donald Trump.

Some customers vowed to boycott the family-owned company after learning last week that Linda Bean, the granddaughter and heir of company founder Leon Leonwood Bean and a longtime Republican activist, bankrolled a political action committee in her efforts to support Trump.

That led L.L. Bean’s board chairman, Shawn Gorman, a great-grandson of L.L. Bean, to do something unusual for the company: address a political controversy head-on.

“We are deeply troubled by the portrayal of L.L. Bean as a supporter of any political agenda,” Gorman said in an open letter posted late Sunday night on Facebook.

A spokeswoman for the Freeport-based company went a step further Monday, with a reminder that the five-generation company has a sprawling family tree.

“As with most families of this size, the views of L.L.’s family members cover nearly the entire political spectrum. And as every member of this very large family would agree, no single person represents the values of the company that L.L. built,” Carolyn Beem said. “Unfortunately, some have attempted to attribute the personal political activities of one member of a five-generation ownership family to our entire company. That is both illogical and unfair.”

L.L. Bean is hoping to avoid the bruising public relations imbroglios that have struck other companies with products seen as linked to Trump’s policies or his or daughter Ivanka Trump’s commercial and retail businesses.

Boston-based New Balance is still grappling with the negative publicity that came after it offered favorable comments about Trump’s position on global trade late last year.

Those comments prompted some unhappy customers to destroy their New Balance shoes by lighting them on fire or attempting to flush them down a toilet in a social media protest that went viral.

“That’s it. No more Bean,” John Eismann from Oakwood, Ohio, posted on L.L. Bean Northport’s Facebook page, echoing other commentators.

To which Chris Dixon of Auburn, Maine, replied: “Good lord, so many people want to punish a good business over one person having free speech in the United States of America?”

It's just a frog with different meanings for different people. That the ADL call it a symbol of hate proves nothing. The ADL exists nominally to protect Jews but spend most of their energies attacking U.S. Christians -- who are the only friends Jews have. They are just another mob of addled and hate-filled Leftists

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

A clever Connecticut politician

WESTPORT — The Democratic Town Committee called on First Selectman Jim Marpe to speak out against hateful rhetoric perpetuated by President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign. Marpe obliged less than 24 hours after the request was made public.

In an open letter addressed to Marpe, the DTC asked the first selectman to take a stand against Trump’s words and “never accept the xenophobia, misogyny, and intolerance that characterized so much of his campaign.”

The DTC’s letter cites Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton winning 69 percent of the vote in Westport to Trump’s 27 percent as a signal the town does not stand for his values.

Marpe responded to the open letter, and one paragraph is worth quoting in full because it addresses the heart of what the DTC sought:

“The 2016 election has stirred us all to reconsider our core values and our rights as Americans; rights which many in Westport may have taken for granted because we thought we had the luxury of doing so. However, with recent events fresh in our minds, we must be cognizant that with the freedoms we cherish come certain personal obligations. Despite differences, Westporters must treat each other with mutual respect and civility. We are no strangers to making our world, country, and our community a better place. The Town’s municipal, civic, religious and volunteer institutions operate under the mantle of these values. Our laws and our values don’t change because of the most recent political winds. We encourage thoughtful and constructive means to embrace each other’s differences. We denounce hatred, divisiveness and manipulation by words and deeds. We remember that in Westport, we are grateful and thankful for and continue to be committed to, the values we hold so dear in our cherished Town. I can assure you that this Town will continue to embrace and protect all its citizens and will stand firmly against hate and intolerance, now and always.”

DTC Chairwoman Melissa Kane said she thought Marpe’s response was “beautiful” and was very satisfied with his handling of the matter.

Marpe is a clever guy. They think he did what they wanted but what he said could equally be seen as a rebuke to them. They wanted him to condemn Trump and his supporters but he in fact told them to be tolerant of different views. Being thick Leftists, they did not see that, however. It apparently did not occur to them that the "others" in his advice to treat "others with mutual respect and civility" could be Trump and his supporters.

‘I don’t feel this way about everything I think, but to me, in this case, my perspective is so self-evidently true, that it’s not even worth having the discussion.’ She’s talking about the source of her recent infamy, the run-in with the right-on crowd, following her criticism of cultural appropriation, the idea that one shouldn’t use or adopt elements of another culture different to one’s own.

Sitting in her kitchen, she defends her argument: ‘Fiction writing is a form of pillaging, happy pillaging, theft that doesn’t hurt anybody or take anything away from people. I saw on the news recently that Edna O’Brien is writing a book, set in Nigeria, which has a lot to do with Boko Haram’s kidnapping of the school girls. If that’s cultural appropriation, then good luck to her. Doesn’t it express an interest in other people’s problems? And one that she doesn’t really have to indulge? She could just keep setting books in Ireland. Isn’t it admirable that she has an eye on the wider world? And I would say that it’s admirable even if she falls flat on her face. I admire that impulse, getting outside your tiny garden.’

When Shriver spoke out against cultural appropriation at ‘a rather modest out-of-the-way literary festival’ in Brisbane, Australia, her contention that fiction is necessarily inauthentic, and that writers ought to be free to write about characters from a range of cultural backgrounds, initially met little resistance.

It was only when a young activist walked out of Shriver’s talk, later describing it as a ‘poisoned package wrapped up in arrogance’, that Shriver’s comments suddenly became controversial. Since then, she says she has ‘got it in the neck for somehow not presenting my case the way I was supposed to’.

But this doesn’t bother her in the slightest. ‘For the sake of sheer variety, someone needs to get a different perspective out’, she tells me defiantly. ‘Fiction writing is a form of pillaging, happy pillaging, theft that doesn’t hurt anybody or take anything away from people’

Monday, January 09, 2017

Beaming for the cameras, and with a protective arm wrapped around his protegee, Sir Tom Jones promised to make Leanne Mitchell a star.

Five years on – and following a short-lived career – the veteran singer believes the reason the 33-year-old failed to crack the charts is because she refused to lose weight.

Now the 76-year-old Grammy award-winner has found himself at the centre of an extraordinary ‘fat-shaming’ row after accusing the first ever winner of the then BBC1 talent show, The Voice, of being too big.

He admitted suggesting she shed the pounds in the hope it would boost her career but, instead, she ‘put on more weight’.

Miss Mitchell, whose only album failed to make it into the top 100, is now back singing at holiday camps where she was originally discovered.

At the launch of the new series, which makes its debut on ITV tonight, Sir Tom said: ‘When she first came on the show, I thought about her trimming down a bit because she had gotten comfortable in this holiday camp and put on some weight.

‘She took the opportunity of winning The Voice but she put on more weight, got more comfortable with the boyfriend who then became her husband.’

Denise Hatton, chief executive of the National Council, which led the YMCA Be Real Campaign for body confidence, has accused the star of fat-shaming. She said: ‘Success in music or in any other industry should not be dependent on your appearance. [But it is]

A boycott of far-right controversialist Milo Yiannopoulos’s publisher Simon & Schuster will have “a chilling effect” on authors and publishers and will not prevent the spread of “noxious ideas”, according to free-speech campaigners.

Led by the National Coalition Against Censorship, eight groups have issued a statement criticising the backlash over his $250,000 (£203,000) book deal as the latest attempt to stifle books likely to cause offence.

The statement, signed by among others Index on Censorship, the Authors Guild and the National Council of Teachers of English, said: “The suppression of noxious ideas does not defeat them; only vigorous disagreement can counter toxic speech effectively”.

It added: “Shutting down the conversation may temporarily silence disfavoured views, but does nothing to prevent them from spreading and resurfacing in other ways.”

The move follows a vociferous campaign against the publisher for signing the so-called “alt-right” figurehead and Breitbart News technology editor to write Dangerous, due out in spring. The book will appear under the publisher’s Threshold Editions imprint, set up as an outlet for conservative voices. Dick Cheney, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh have also been published by the imprint.

Last week, the Chicago Review of Books announced that it would not review Simon & Schuster authors in 2017 in protest at the deal.

Sunday, January 08, 2017

British student union bans use of 'he' and 'she' - because they 'don't want to make assumptions about gender'

A students' union is discouraging its members from using the pronouns 'he' and 'she', to avoid assumptions being made as to how people identify.

Sussex University students' union has released a gender inclusive language policy, which applies to all its meetings, radio broadcasts, communications, societies and elections.

The policy states that preferred pronouns should be stated at the beginning of every meeting, regardless of whether they have been stated at previous meetings, and that gender neutral language should be used when the pronoun is not known.

The policy continues: 'In situations where introductions are not appropriate or where an individual has not directly stated their pronouns, gender-neutral language should be used to refer to them, and no assumptions should be made based on presentation or appearance.

'The gender-neutral pronoun ‘they’ should be used as opposed to ‘he’ or ‘she’, and the pronoun ‘them’ as opposed to ‘him’ or ‘her’.

'Individuals whose gender identities are not known should not be described as ‘men’ or ‘women’, and inclusive terms such as ‘person’ should be used instead.

In 2014, the union marked a 'massive win' and a 'great achievement' when gender neutral toilets signs were placed in 75 of the facilities across the campus.

New Years' Eve injunction blocks the federal redefinition of the word 'sex'

On New Year's Eve, a federal judge in Texas issued an injunction against what has become known as the "transgender mandate." The injunction prevented enforcement of a new federal regulation issued this spring whose consequences have been hotly debated, which would have gone into effect on Jan. 1.

The Becket Fund, which litigated on behalf of religious healthcare provider networks, has argued ever since the rule was promulgated that it will require many doctors to perform procedures related to gender reassignment, even on children, and even where it violates their medical judgment, let alone their religious beliefs about sex changes.

The state plaintiffs in the case, who had sued alongside the providers, argued (among other things) that their state laws requiring doctors to act on their best medical judgment would be overturned by this new federal rule. They also argued that the rule would require them to provide state employees with insurance plans that cover sex reassignment procedures.

The Obama administration, on the other side (and this has been parroted in most of the media coverage), maintained that this rule merely forbade discrimination against transgendered individuals in healthcare, and that's all, full stop. If this actually were a fair statement of the case, then who could possibly be against that? After all, you don't have to buy into the normalization of gender dysphoria to find it completely immoral to deny treatment to a transgendered person who walks into a hospital with an injury or disease.

But as often happens in these cases, the popular representation is not always the same as the case presented in court. The rule, as the Department of Health and Human Services acknowledged in its own 66-page response to the complaint, would have subjected denials of gender reassignment treament or coverage to administrative and court challenges, in which those making the decisions would have had to justify their medical decisions in such cases as non-discriminatory.

Judge Reed O'Connor issued the preliminary injunction based on the belief that plaintiffs are likely to win the case at trial, and that a failure to enjoin the new rule would cause them irreparable harm.

Congress, through multiple federal laws over the last 45 years, has defined "sex" based on biological science. By using Title IX's definition for sex discrimination and applying it to the concept of "gender identity," HHS tried to slip a more subjective "modern gender" definition of "sex" into the law without Congress.

Friday, January 06, 2017

“PANCASILA”, a word that embodies the Indonesian national philosophy, is at the centre of a high-profile spat between Australia and its close neighbour.

Many Australians may be scratching their heads at the Indonesia’s reaction to an apparent play on words making fun of their national ideology, but one expert has explained why it’s so offensive.

Associate Professor Greg Fealy of the Australian National University said the furore appeared to be over a joke.According to The Australian, an instructor from the Indonesian special forces unit Kopassus, went to the Perth base for training but felt uneasy at some of the topics discussed in class

While it has not been confirmed, it’s believed the Indonesian officer went to the academy’s head office to complain and reportedly found a play on words referencing Pancasila, but ending the word with “gila” which means crazy or mad in Indonesian.

Not every military officer would have been offended by the apparent joke, said Prof Fealy, but there was a high risk of offence.

The professor, who is an expert on Indonesian politics, said Pancasila — meaning “five principles” — was very important to Indonesians as these represent the country’s national ideology.“Every schoolchild, every Indonesian knows what the five principles are, they are thoroughly ingrained and taught in the education system,” Prof Fealy told news.com.au. “For a strongly nationalistic military officer, the Pancasila has an almost sacred status.”

What he objected to was a perfectly innocent and objective description

FORMER American Idol contestant Bo Bice has spoken out about copping what he claimed was “racist behaviour”.

The singer was at Popeye’s, a fast food restaurant at Atlanta International Airport, when one of the employees went to give his order to a different person. The singer then claimed her co-worker said: “He already got his, that white boy there.”

“The three ladies behind the counter asked whose food it was,” Bo Bice said in an interview with Fox 5 in Atlanta. “Just when I turned around, one of them said ‘that white boy.’”

The husband and father of four said the incident was shocking.

“If tables had been turned and I used something as insensitive like that ... I would be boycotted, people wouldn’t buy my albums,” Bice said.

Bice said all he wanted from the corporation was an apology, but he never got it.

The worker who said “white boy’ has now been suspended after Bice complained on his social media accounts about her, and even posted a photo of the two women working along with the name of one on his Facebook page.

Thursday, January 05, 2017

What a lot of Bologna! Facebook 'censors' nude statue of sea god Neptune, the well-known Renaissance symbol of northern Italian city

A virile, muscled statue of the sea god Neptune has fallen foul of Facebook’s prudish policies on nudity after an Italian art historian was told to remove it from her web page.

The sixteenth century Renaissance statue dominates Piazza del Nettuno, a grand square in the heart of Bologna.

A symbol of the prosperous northern Italy city, it was chosen by Elisa Barbari, a local writer, to illustrate her Facebook page, called “Stories, curiosities and views of Bologna”.

But the social media giant objected to the image, which shows a naked Neptune – Nettuno in Italian – holding a large trident. “I wanted to promote my page but it seems that for Facebook the statue is a sexually explicit image that shows off too much flesh. Really, Neptune? This is crazy!” Ms Barbari said.

She said she was “indignant and irritated”, and asked “How can a work of art, our very own statue of Neptune, be the object of censorship?”

You can have French food, Chinese food, Indian food but you CANNOT have black food

MADELEINE Pickens wanted the African-American chef she recruited from the country club she owns in Southern California to cook “black people food” — not “white people food” — at her rural Nevada dude ranch and wild horse sanctuary, according to a federal lawsuit accusing her of racial discrimination.

Armand Appling says the wealthy philanthropist and ex-wife of Oklahoma energy tycoon T. Boone Pickens told him fried chicken, BBQ ribs and corn bread would be perfect for the tourists who pay nearly $US2,000 ($A2779) a night to stay in plush cottages, ride horses and take Wild West “safaris” on ATVs at her Mustang Monument Wild Horse Eco-Resort.

Appling alleges he was fired in 2014 in retaliation for complaining about a hostile work environment. He says Pickens’ stereotypical references were commonplace at the Elko County ranch stretching across 2330 square kilometres on the edge of the Ruby Mountains about 50 miles west of the Utah line.

Among other things, he says Pickens, who is white, instructed him to terminate two other black kitchen staffers — one she referred to as her “bull” or “ox” and another who had “too much personality.” He says she told him they didn’t “look like people we have working at the country club” and didn’t “fit the image” of the staff she wanted at the ranch.

US District Judge Miranda Du said during a hearing in Reno last week that Appling’s lawyers have failed so far to prove the sort of racial hostility needed to win such a civil rights claim. She dismissed the original lawsuit that was filed in February but gave them until January 13 to refile an amended complaint seeking unspecified damages from Pickens’ nonprofit, Save America’s Mustangs. “It takes a lot to prove these allegations,” Du told California attorney Willie Williams on Thursday.

Du agreed with Pickens’ lawyer, Dora Lane of Reno, that the only comment that specifically referred to race was the reference to “black people food.” Lane said categorising foods by ethnicity is commonplace in the restaurant industry. Some restaurants serve Mexican food, others Chinese or Thai food, she said.

Wednesday, January 04, 2017

The N-word is used in famous British comedy made in 1975

Censored recently but now available again

The derogatory lines appear in the celebrated 1975 episode called The Germans, in which the hapless Basil Fawlty, played by John Cleese, offends a party of German tourists by mentioning the war and performing a Nazi-style walk.

Also in the episode is a scene when long-term hotel guest Major Gowen, played by the late Ballard Berkeley, recalls the day he took a former girlfriend to watch a cricket match between England and India at The Oval.

He tells Fawlty: ‘The strange thing was that throughout the morning she kept referring to the Indians as n*****s.’

He goes on: ‘No, no, no, no I said – n*****s are West Indians, these people are wogs. No, no no, she said – all cricketers are n*****s.’

The lines were not seen as an issue when the episode was first broadcast on October 24, 1975, but BBC chiefs decided they were in bad taste when they repeated the episode in 2013.

But the cuts divided opinion, with some fans accusing the BBC of overreacting. One fan wrote: ‘The point is that the Major is a racist old bigot, incongruous with modern society even in the 1970s. The audience wasn’t supposed to agree with him. They were supposed to laugh at him… The whole episode is about xenophobia.’

All 12 [Uncut] episodes of Fawlty Towers are currently available via Netflix with a G rating, which urges adult discretion.

A Netflix spokesman said: ‘The service includes ratings guides and episode synopses to help people decide, and we also provide a PIN code system to ensure children can’t view certain content.’

HONOLULU’S Café 8 ½ gets rave reviews on Yelp for its “Radiatore Verde” and “Italian stir fry,” among other popular dishes at the eclectic mum-and-pop restaurant — but the response to its new “policy” barring pro-Trump patrons has been decidedly more mixed.

Tuesday, January 03, 2017

Students know what a good parade looks like

Most Asians care little about the holocaust, seeing it as a Western thing. They may even admire Hitler as a strong leader. And Hitler definitely ran impressive parades. So they see no problem in copying him

To celebrate the 62nd anniversary of a school in northern Taiwan, students were invited to choose historical figures and “cosplay” them at a parade Friday.

Liu Hsi-cheng, a history teacher at Hsinchu Kuang Fu High School, suggested to his homeroom class that they go with famous people from Arabic culture, he told the Taipei Times.

But Liu's students had another idea: a theme based on Adolf Hitler.

Liu warned his students that such a theme would be “very controversial,” the paper reported — but ultimately “chose to respect the students' decision and did not veto it” after the class voted on it twice.

On Friday, students from the school in Hsinchu, about 55 miles southwest of Taipei, showed up to the festivities wearing Nazi uniforms and brandishing signs, arm bands and long red banners with swastikas on them.

As word of the school activity circulated online, the outrage was swift and widespread. On social media, people in Taiwan and abroad condemned the students' decision as “ignorant” and “a disgusting display of disrespect.”

Simon & Schuster has defended a reported $US250,000 book deal with alt-right blogger Milo Yiannopoulos, after the news sparked backlash from authors and book reviewers accusing the publisher of condoning hate speech.

Dangerous, due out in March, has already shot to the top of Amazon's bestseller list, based on pre-order purchases alone.

Yiannopoulos, 32, a blogger for the far-right opinion website Breitbart News - whose influence now reaches the highest offices of US government, after president-elect Donald Trump named Stephen Bannon, the site's founder and executive chair, as his Chief Strategist – has a history of controversial statements, including attacking feminism, Islam, transgender people, Black Lives Matter and the "regressive left", on a platform of anti-PC "free speech".

Last July, he was permanently banned from Twitter, following racist and sexist messages aimed at Ghostbusters actress, Leslie Jones.

Confirming the announcement in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Yiannopoulos taunted his detractors.

"They said banning me from Twitter would finish me off. Just as I predicted, the opposite has happened," he said.

"Every line of attack the forces of political correctness try on me fails pathetically. I'm more powerful, more influential and more fabulous than ever before, and this book is the moment Milo goes mainstream. "Social justice warriors should be scared – very scared," he added.

Simon & Schuster's decision to publish Yiannopoulos' incendiary views – via their imprint Threshold Editions, which previously published Trump's Crippled America and Great Again - was instantly condemned from many within the industry.

In a statement addressing the backlash, Simon & Schuster said it does not condone discrimination or hate speech and asked readers to "withhold judgment until they have had a chance to read the actual contents of the book."

Monday, January 02, 2017

Animated kids movie Sing is accused of racism because its gorilla characters are criminals who like hip hop and are sent to prison

Not sure what the problem is. Is the problem that gorillas look like someone we know? Odd that they don't say that below

Sing, Universal Pictures’ 3D computer-animated music comedy film which was released in theaters last week, is being accused of perpetuating racial stereotypes because the film’s plot line includes gorillas who are sent to prison for criminal activity.

A number of Twitter users noted that the film, which features the voices of Matthew McConaughey and Reese Witherspoon, conjures up uncomfortable stereotypes about black people.

One of the protagonists, Johnny, is a gorilla who aspires to be a hip-hop singer but is burdened by his father, who at one point in the film is in prison for running a gang, according to Heatstreet.

Seeking to pursue his dream of making it as a musician, Johnny betrays his father by abandoning him during a robbery, leading to his dad’s incarceration.

Having gorillas engaged in criminal behavior and becoming hip hop singers crossed the line for some people, who accuse the film in trading in classic, racist tropes.

'Sing looks like a cute movie but I can't get past the fact that the gorillas are gang members in jail,' one Twitter user wrote.

University of Kansas students are being offered buttons spelling out their preferred gender pronouns

What about a button with the old instruction: "Call me anything but don't call me late for dinner"

University of Kansas students are being offered buttons through the school's library system meant to make their preferred gender pronouns clear.

Various University of Kansas Libraries employees now sport the square-shaped pins, with extra ones also doled out to interested students, the Lawrence Journal-World reports.

Library leaders say the buttons are part of the library system's 'You Belong Here' marketing effort meant to lure undergraduates and ensure that they feel welcome, including transgender students.

The buttons come in three versions: 'He him his,' ''She her hers' and, for people who don't identify themselves as male or female, 'They them theirs.'

'Because gender is, itself, fluid and up to the individual,' a sign at the libraries reads. 'Each person has the right to identify their own pronouns, and we encourage you to ask before assuming someone's gender.

Is the American national anthem politically incorrect? From the 4th verse:Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."

Mohammad

The truth can be offensive to some but it must be said

"HATE SPEECH" is free speech: The U.S. Supreme Court stated the general rule regarding protected speech in Texas v. Johnson (109 S.Ct. at 2544), when it held: "The government may not prohibit the verbal or nonverbal expression of an idea merely because society finds the idea offensive or disagreeable." Federal courts have consistently followed this. Said Virginia federal district judge Claude Hilton: "The First Amendment does not recognize exceptions for bigotry, racism, and religious intolerance or ideas or matters some may deem trivial, vulgar or profane."

Even some advocacy of violence is protected by the 1st Amendment. In Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969), the U.S. Supreme Court held unanimously that speech advocating violent illegal actions to bring about social change is protected by the First Amendment "except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action."

The double standard: Atheists can put up signs and billboards saying that Christianity is wrong and that is hunky dory. But if a Christian says that homosexuality is wrong, that is attacked as "hate speech"

One for the militant atheists to consider: "...it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg" -- Thomas Jefferson

"I think no subject should be off-limits, and I regard the laws in many Continental countries criminalizing Holocaust denial as philosophically repugnant and practically useless – in that they confirm to Jew-haters that the Jews control everything (otherwise why aren’t we allowed to talk about it?)" -- Mark Steyn

Voltaire's most famous saying was actually a summary of Voltaire's thinking by one of his biographers rather than something Voltaire said himself. Nonetheless it is a wholly admirable sentiment: "I disagree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it". I am of a similar mind.

The traditional advice about derogatory speech: "Sticks and stones will break your bones but names will never hurt you". Apparently people today are not as emotionally robust as their ancestors were.

Why conservatives should not respond to Leftist abuse: "Never wrestle with a pig, because you'll both just get dirty, and the pig likes it.”

The KKK were members of the DEMOCRATIC party. Google "Klanbake" if you doubt it

A phobia is an irrational fear, so the terms "Islamophobic" and "homophobic" embody a claim that the people so described are mentally ill. There is no evidence for either claim. Both terms are simply abuse masquerading as diagnoses and suggest that the person using them is engaged in propaganda rather than in any form of rational or objective discourse.

Leftists often pretend that any mention of race is "racist" -- unless they mention it, of course. But leaving such irrational propaganda aside, which statements really are racist? Can statements of fact about race be "racist"? Such statements are simply either true or false. The most sweeping possible definition of racism is that a racist statement is a statement that includes a negative value judgment of some race. Absent that, a statement is not racist, for all that Leftists might howl that it is. Facts cannot be racist so nor is the simple statement of them racist. Here is a statement that cannot therefore be racist by itself, though it could be false: "Blacks are on average much less intelligent than whites". If it is false and someone utters it, he could simply be mistaken or misinformed.

Categorization is a basic human survival skill so racism as the Left define it (i.e. any awareness of race) is in fact neither right nor wrong. It is simply human

Whatever your definition of racism, however, a statement that simply mentions race is not thereby racist -- though one would think otherwise from American Presidential election campaigns. Is a statement that mentions dogs, "doggist" or a statement that mentions cats, "cattist"?

If any mention of racial differences is racist then all Leftists are racist too -- as "affirmative action" is an explicit reference to racial differences

Was Abraham Lincoln a racist? "You and we are different races. We have between us a broader difference than exists between almost any other two races. Whether it is right or wrong I need not discuss, but this physical difference is a great disadvantage to us both, as I think your race suffer very greatly, many of them by living among us, while ours suffer from your presence. In a word, we suffer on each side. If this be admitted, it affords a reason at least why we should be separated. It is better for both, therefore, to be separated." -- Spoken at the White House to a group of black community leaders, August 14th, 1862

Gimlet-eyed Leftist haters sometimes pounce on the word "white" as racist. Will the time come when we have to refer to the White House as the "Full spectrum of light" House?

The spirit of liberty is "the spirit which is not too sure that it is right." and "Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it." -- Judge Learned Hand

Mostly, a gaffe is just truth slipping out

Two lines below of a famous hymn that would be incomprehensible to Leftists today ("honor"? "right"? "freedom?" Freedom to agree with them is the only freedom they believe in)

First to fight for right and freedom,
And to keep our honor clean

It is of course the hymn of the USMC -- still today the relentless warriors that they always were.

It seems a pity that the wisdom of the ancient Greek philosopher Epictetus is now little known. Remember, wrote the Stoic thinker, "that foul words or blows in themselves are no outrage, but your judgment that they are so. So when any one makes you angry, know that it is your own thought that has angered you. Wherefore make it your endeavour not to let your impressions carry you away."

"Since therefore the knowledge and survey of vice is in this world so necessary to the constituting of human virtue, and the scanning of error to the confirmation of truth, how can we more safely, and with less danger, scout into the regions of sin and falsity than by reading all manner of tractates, and hearing all manner of reason?" -- English poet John Milton (1608-1674) in Areopagitica

Leftists can try to get you fired from your job over something that you said and that's not an attack on free speech. But if you just criticize something that they say, then that IS an attack on free speech

The intellectual Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) could have been speaking of much that goes on today when he said: "The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."

I despair of the ADL. Jews have enough problems already and yet in the ADL one has a prominent Jewish organization that does its best to make itself offensive to Christians. Their Leftism is more important to them than the welfare of Jewry -- which is the exact opposite of what they ostensibly stand for! Jewish cleverness seems to vanish when politics are involved. Fortunately, Christians are true to their saviour and have loving hearts. Jewish dissatisfaction with the myopia of the ADL is outlined here. Note that Foxy was too grand to reply to it.

There are also two blogspot blogs which record what I think are my main recent articles here and here. Similar content can be more conveniently accessed via my subject-indexed list of short articles here or here (I rarely write long articles these days)

NOTE: The archives provided by blogspot below are rather inconvenient. They break each month up into small bits. If you want to scan whole months at a time, the backup archives will suit better. See here or here